Crucified with Christ

There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free. We must invite the cross to do its deadly work within us. We must bring our self-sins to the cross for judgment. We must prepare ourselves for an ordeal of suffering in some measure like that through which our Saviour passed when He suffered under Pontius Pilate.

from The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

Quickened to Life

That a saving work must first be done in the heart is taken for granted here. The spiritual faculties of the unregenerate man lie asleep in his nature, unused and for every purpose dead; that is the stroke which has fallen upon us by sin. They may be quickened to active life again by the operation of the Holy Spirit in regeneration; that is one of the immeasurable benefits which come to us through Christ's atoning work on the cross.

from The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

Life After Death According to Spock

“Above all,” Spock said, “the universe is ordered by logic, in both the realm of normal space that we inhabit and the other dimensions we have observed. Even in the chaos of quantum and subspace mechanics, we can see the elegant symmetry of the universe.” (p. 191)

Yet they were here now, and looking to him for a palliative that would relieve them of the pain they were in. And as their teacher, he would do his best to ease their passage.

“Surak tells us to find order in chaos,” he explained, “so that we may better understand the nature of all that is. When asked about the possibility of life after death—a realm most often left to less practical philosophers—Surak said, ‘It would be illogical for the universe to create complex, reasoning beings only to dispose of their minds when their bodies no longer functioned.’”

That principle was the basis of the Vulcan practice of preserving the Katra—the sentient soul of the dying—in the Hall of Thought. Unfortunately, none of this students would have their minds saved in such a way.

Few of them had mastered the required mental techniques for the transfer of the Katra to a living being. And even if all of them had the skills, there would be no one to whom they might transfer their Katras.

Still, Spock knew that the universe was logical, and trusted that the natural order was not wasteful. That granted him the ability to accept what would come. (p.192)

from Crossover (Star Trek TNG novel) 1995 by Michael Jan Friedman